Retired baseball star Lenny Dykstra is once again facing legal trouble after Pennsylvania State Police say drugs and paraphernalia were found in his possession during a traffic stop on New Year’s Day.
Lenny Dykstra, 62, was riding as a passenger when the vehicle was pulled over by a state trooper assigned to the Blooming Grove patrol unit in Pike County, roughly 25 miles east of Scranton, where Dykstra lives.
State police confirmed that charges are expected to be filed but did not immediately specify what substances were allegedly involved or what charges Dykstra may face.
Dykstra’s attorney, Matthew Blit, said the vehicle did not belong to his client and emphasized that Dykstra was not accused of being under the influence at the time of the stop.
“To the extent charges are brought against him, they will be swiftly absolved,” Blit said in a statement.
Nicknamed “Nails” for his hard-nosed playing style, Dykstra rose to fame during his MLB career with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. After retiring from baseball, he moved into business — but his post-playing years have been marked by repeated legal controversies.
Dykstra previously served time in a California prison for bankruptcy fraud after hiding memorabilia from his playing days. That sentence ran concurrently with a three-year term tied to a no-contest plea for grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement, in which he claimed to owe more than $31 million while reporting just $50,000 in assets.
In 2012, Dykstra pleaded no contest to exposing himself to women he met through Craigslist. In 2019, his company, Titan Equity Group, pleaded guilty to illegally renting out rooms in a New Jersey home, resulting in roughly $3,000 in fines.
That same year, a judge dismissed drug and terroristic threat charges following an altercation with an Uber driver, during which police said cocaine, MDMA, and marijuana were found among Dykstra’s belongings. His attorney at the time dismissed the case as “overblown.”
Dykstra has also been involved in high-profile civil litigation. In 2020, a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Mets teammate Ron Darling over claims that Dykstra used racist language during the 1986 World Series.
In his ruling, Justice Robert D. Kalish wrote that Dykstra’s reputation was already so damaged that it could not be further harmed, citing a long history of alleged misconduct.
The latest case remains under investigation as authorities prepare to file formal charges.
No proof it was his.